Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii, 2006)

Okay, first off I wanted to say that I bought this game based on an above average set of reviews I read that said it was really fun and intuitive. I thought my son (8 years old) and I (34 year old Dad) would really have a blast playing it together. According to the description it has a ton of mulitplayer games and single player games. I really enjoyed playing marble madness and other table tilting type of games, but this one has not taken me by storm.

When you start your first world you will be looking at some nice new shiny fly by, but when you start moving the wii-mote around you will notice that the whole table / world is moving, not the monkey in the ball. That is when the nauseating feeling kicked in. Especially when you are not the one playing and you are watching someone else.

After a bit of getting used to tilting the table and using the "A" button or flicking the controller up to jump, you start to get through each of the many worlds the game has. But even then, I am wondering how many people actually make it past the first few complete worlds as the difficulty really starts to increase dramatically.

That is when the frustration level really started to kick in. So, my son and I tried to play the multiplayer games, and I can't say there weren't a ton to choose from, but because of that, each one had it's own complete set of controls. This made it a challenge each time you started a new mini-game to get used to how to control the thing. My son said to me, he loved the monkey ball games on his gamecube and could control them easily with his gamecube controller, but he had an extremely hard time gathering the bananas, let alone getting to the end of the world in the time allotted.

Don't get me wrong, the game can be a nice diversion from Epic adventures like Zelda, but it doesn't seem to be geared toward a casual non-stressful type of game. It gets very frustrating and nauseating and that is why my son and I decided to trade it in for Rayman: Raving Rabbids. It is another Mini-game type of playing. I couldnt' be happier, as that game has been a lot easier to control and a lot easier on the eyes and stress level.

If you are a long time Monkey Ball Fan, I am sure you will enjoy this game, but for a parent or child who has little patience and are looking for a fun set of mini-games, this is not the game for you. My honest opinion is that this game may have been originally designed for the cube, and at the last minute adapted to the Wii and it's control scheme.

I hope this review helps any other parent out there looking for a new game for their child, and for anyone else who may be thinking about buying this Wii game. Thanks for reading.